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[[Category:Lifestyle|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Lifestyle]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex Buckley1454955546|title=Ssh! Lose Weight in 20 MinutesSugarless|author=Nicole M Avena|rating=35
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=After years of limited exercise combined with ''This isn't a love of fine food, Alex Buckley was known to his friends as Fat Al. He followed a number of diet plans to no effect before coming up with his own solution, which is outlined in this book. His message The last thing anyone needs is basically an extended version of the another diet book.'' There was a time, not that long standing sound advice ago, when it was thought that to lose weight sugary food was better for you need than food with high-fat content. Fat was the demon food which was going to eat less elevate your cholesterol and exercise morecause heart disease. Sugar was a carbohydrate, so good. BuckleyThere's suggestions break this broad truth down into achievable micro steps. He provides tips on ways of sustaining weight loss by very gradually changing your behaviour. The book does not offer detailed recipes or a programme of food exclusionproblem, though. It Sugar is very addictive and can hijack your brain in much about advice on small day to day choices the same way as drugs like heroin and gradual changecocaine. Does that sound over the top? Well, written in a straightforward and easily accessible styleit isn't.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218282</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rosie O'Hara1635866847|title=No More Bingo Dresses: Using NLP to cope with breast cancer The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and other people Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=24.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before Istarted reading 'd love to meet Rosie O'HaraThe Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm. She sounds like com/ website] and there's a fullpicture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts -on, earthy lady who has more than a few tales to tell about her life to datebut I wanted that cake viscerally. Rosie is (There's a professional neuro-linguistic programming trainer recipe in the Highlands of Scotland, and has already published an NLP-based self-help book. At the beginning of 2009, a routine mammogram turned up which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a little breast cancer'mess of it. Rosie set out Notes in her very direct and determined way the margins are sanctioned. You get to put fold down the cancer in its rightful place as corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a challenge in her life rather than a defining disaster and problem. I ''loved'' this feisty diary is the resultbook already.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218347</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0760381267
|title=Verdura: Living a Garden Life
|author=Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago
|rating=3.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''The most important part of a garden is the one who enjoys it''.
I've 'gardened' in a vague, indefinite sort of way for more than half a century. I know (most of) the basics but life has changed and I needed 'projects' rather than a general commitment to gardening. ''Verdura'' with its promise of projects for both indoors and outdoors of varying complexity seemed like the answer. So, how did it stack up?}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony T DeBenedet and Lawrence CohenSarah Wilson|title=The Art of RoughhousingThis One Wild and Precious Life: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=Home and FamilyLifestyle|summary=Rather than running around outdoors, going for bike rides and building dens, lots of children nowadays end up spending hours watching TV or playing computer games. Play times in school are often very regimented and My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in some schools certain games like which she asks 'British Bulldog' What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'Leapfrog' and even I get to love that line so much because my answer is 'Tag' have even been bannedThis! Precisely this. '' Children are discouraged from physical play, for fear that they will hurt themselves I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and also through precious life the fear that those responsible for them will find themselves facing a lawsuit if someone does get hurtway I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. This In her book aims that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to support think about whether we really ''are'' living the thinking life we want – the best life that very physical play we could be living. Her answer is good for children; that unless they face risks in their lives and learn to assess those risksan unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, or experience a few bumps and bruises and learn to get up and carry onshe thinks you (we, then they will lack vital life skills for their future adult livesI) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1594744874</amazonuk>1785633848
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Brayne1394159544|title=Sex, Meaning and the MenopauseRecycling for Dummies|author=Sarah Winkler
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Things change as you get older. As men – and particularly women – approach their late forties and early fifties they expect that there will be physical changes, some more permanent than others, but they're frequently taken by surprise by the mental changes which occur. Women expect that the menopause will bring the end 'Recycling one ton of menstruation (some looking at this more gratefully than othersplastic can save up to 16...) but fail to appreciate that they are moving into a different stage 3 barrels of their lifeoil. Looked at positively this can be the most fulfilling period of woman's lifecycle – and I doubt that there's a husband who would object to that!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0826423019</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Diane Ackerman|title=One Hundred Names For Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Diane Ackerman's husband, Paul West, had been in hospital for three weeks with a kidney infection and was just rejoicing in the fact that he was to go home the next day. As Diane watched , Paul suffered a massive stroke. The effects were catastrophic, but worst of all, the man who had been a brilliant wordsmith was robbed of his power 'Recycling one ton of speech and lost his extensive vocabularypaper can save 17 trees from being cut down. It's eight years since this happened and the intervening years have been a constant battle to improve Paul's speech and restore some joy to his life. There have been ups – and many downs – but despite a brain scan indicating that Paul might well be a vegetable he has since his stroke written books. His vocabulary will never be back to what it was, but it remains impressive and, strangely enough, many of the words which he finds easiest to use are those which he encountered a number of years ago.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039307241X</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Eleanor Birne|title=When Will I Sleep Through the Night? An A - Z of Babyhood|rating=4.5|genre=Home and Family|summary=When it comes If you send an apple core to parentinglandfill, I have discovered that a lot of people lie. They lie about sleep, about tantrums, about feeding and nappies and the effects of a screaming newborn on your marriage. There are books galore, and Mummy blogs, and tweeters all happily proclaiming how marvellous it all is, first of all being pregnant, then giving birth, and then raising the baby. It's all glowing skin and sunshine smiles and meeting friends for coffee. I quickly stopped reading anything baby-related when I was pregnant because I was sick as a dog for 5 will take between 6 months, I had an awful labour and that first year with my little girl was almost impossibly difficult and totally consumed with the horror of a non-sleeping baby2 years to decompose. Now, four and a half A glass bottle will take up to 1 million years on from giving birth and (mostly) sleeping all night long I felt able to open up this latest baby book, mainly because the title roused such familiar feelings in me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684862</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Hugh Bowring|title=Green Living Guide|rating=4As a just-post-WWII baby, I faced a dilemma: reducing, reusing and recycling is part of my DNA.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=The NEVER throw away anything that might ''possibly'Green Living Guide' is a Magbook - so come in handy now or in the format is like future. NEVER buy anything if you can cobble together something that would serve the purpose. Almost everything can be used one more time and any purchase must pass the test of a magazine 'Is this absolutely essential?' On the other hand, I suspected I was guilty of wishcycling: assuming that something must be recyclable (toothpaste tubes - I'm looking at you) and although dropping it initially seems a little expensive for something that looks just like a magazine you quickly findin the kerbside bin. Yes, I could go searching on opening, that it contains an enormous amount of interesting the internet - and useful information. Even already determined ecoget conflicting advice -warriors should find something of interest in this wide-ranging guidebut what I needed was a recycling bible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907232060</amazonuk>s
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Arianne Cohen0760378134|title=The Sex Diaries ProjectFirst-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening|author=Pamela Farley|rating=45|genre=LifestyleHome and Family|summary=ItIf you's often said 'there's nowt so queer as folkve ever thought how good it would be to be able to pop out into the garden and pick some fruit and vegetables for a meal – but realised that you wouldn't know where to start, this is the book you need. Surely this should be qualified as 'thereIt's nowt so queer as folkscomprehensive: you' sex livesll cover everything from why you should grow your own food, what you'. Arianne Cohen has made a major online database of testimony from people about their thoughts regarding sex - having itre going to grow, not having what you'll grow itin (both containers and soil), having it with whom theywhere you're withll put these containers, having it how you'll water and fertilise them and you finish the main part of the book with those whom theya handy section on troubleshooting. There're not withs also a good glossary. And in every senseSo, the results can be exceedingly queer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091939356</amazonuk>is it any good?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vatsyayana1398508632|title=Kama SutraThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=45
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''Kama Sutra''It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, then... What could I possibly say particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to introduce it that you don't already know or think you know? For all that Kama Sutra isstart, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, it's no longer Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a guide to few advantages: the art area around her was a known habitat with a variety of pleasureterrains. It's She had electricity which allowed her to run a fascinating historical documentfridge, freezer and undoubtedly influential, but it's very much of its time dehydrator. She had a car - and of its societyfuel. Try to follow all its suggestions and at best you'd never get laid again; at worst Most importantly, you'll be up on she had shelter: this was not a rape charge within a week. (plan to ''After sending the nurselive's daughter away, he takes the girl's maidenhead while she is alone, asleep and out of her senseswild just to live off its produce...'') |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846141095</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane ShillingBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=The Stranger in the Mirror: A Memoir of Middle AgeI May Be Wrong
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography|summary=Middle-aged women disappear. They are not see on television, their lives do not appear in newspapersWhen the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the legions rest of novels that are written each year rarely feature themthe world responds to your book. At least I know, that is what the author Jane Shilling believes as she wakes up aged 47 to find having read the narrative of her contemporaries and their lives which she has been reading about and living book in parallel question, that Lindeblad would disagree with since leaving university has vanished. She looks in the mirror and sees a face she does not recognisethat thought. Even with a punishing regime of early bed, no alcohol He knows (and litres at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of waterthe world responds to this book, because it refuses to regain its youthful bloom. So she decides to take a magnifying glass to this particular moment tells the truth as it is, in time, this journey between youth and old agethe early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701181001</amazonuk>1526644827
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jacques Bonnet, James Salter and Sian Reynolds1732898731|title=Phantoms on the BookshelvesThe Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults|author=Michael Albanese |rating=34.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Translated from French this beautifully presented little book takes There was a Boy who loved boxes. He had a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art supplies, stuffed toys and the like: all the things which most children have in abundance. The Boy's delight was in the reader into homes boasting book collectionssense of order in his room: it made him feel happy. As he grew up and became a Man, large his life became more complicated and smallhe dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Studded with succinct Look carefully at the pictures and appropriate quotations such as you'there is no better reason for not reading ll see that one of them has a book than having it' by Anthony Burgesspadlock...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694583</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sandy Donaghy1846276772|title=The Longest JourneyEnd of Bias: Nine Keys to Health, Wealth and HappinessHow We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=How many self-help books have you read where the ideas all seem very goodAnyone who is not an able, but white man understands bias in that they've not been tested in may no longer even recognise the fire, so extent to speak? which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The end result seems goodable will come before the disabled. Jobs, promotions, but you suspect that higher salaries are the preserve of the starting point wasnwhite man. Even when those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, that their concerns are acknowledged. It'all'' that disadvantageous s personally appalling and more to degrading for the point, individuals on the cynic inside you wonders if receiving end of the motivation for writing the book was financial gain. Has bias but it made you shy away from such books? Now, I want you to drop the cynicism, because what we have here is a book that's written from the heart and not just the wallet and the only motivation in writing it was to help peopleindividuals who are negatively impacted. Unusual? Yup; it is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1425161065</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Erling Kagge
|title=Walking: One Step At A Time
|rating=5
|genre= Lifestyle
|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is evidenced by the number of pages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your book not mine. In my defence, I will say that as a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – I'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why).
{{newreview|author=Roy Vickery|title=GarlandsErligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, Conkers the North Pole and Mother-Die: British and Irish Plant-Lore|rating=5|genre=History|summary=For many centuriesthe summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, plants have not only had practical uses as foodthis isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, remedies, textiles and dyes, but have also symbolic and folkloric meaning in many different culturesit is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. It is a plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. The term There is no 'contents'plant-lorepage and I haven'' has been coined to describe the profusion of the customs and beliefs associated with plantst counted. In small format paperback, each essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps then, and this book gathers together many better thought of the plant-lore traditions of Britain and Irelandas a meditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441101950</amazonuk>0241357705
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cindy M Meston and David BussRichard Brook|title=Why Women Have SexUnderstanding Human Nature: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure A User's Guide to Revenge (and Everything in Between)Life
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=Many many years ago, I am a man who was far too young to be the fusty, dusty RE teacher he was shaping to befirm believer that sometimes we choose books, asked my best friend and I why we were each having sex with our girlfriendssometimes books choose us. Even aged fifteen I thought something along In my case, this is one of the lines of 'welllatter. Not so very long ago, if he doesnI had come across this book I't know by nowd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, he never willbut it would not have ', and listed hit home' in the way that it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was great funlikely to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a very enjoyable sensation, showed an appetite for predisposition towards expecting to like the relationshipbook, and even if it doesn't always turn out that sex proved the ultimate in bonding - how much closer, to be blunt, could you be to someone than actually inside them? Iway''ll come clean now and admit said girlfriend was not real, ] – but several have been since, and also because it is a book I have had heaps of fun finding out how - and perhaps why - women have sex. I was never needed to knowread, until right now, there are 237 reasons for it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546639</amazonuk>1800461682
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0753558378
|title=Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters
|author=Greg McKeown
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.''
{{newreview|author=Karen Wilkin|title=Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=IThat'm all in favour of Edward Gorey becoming a bigger name, especially here in the UK, where his output is certainly less lauded than in his native USAs what happened to Patrick McGinnis. It's evident from no exaggeration to say that he devoted his life to the brightcompany he worked for, glossy pages here struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was an extraordinary talentworking for a bankrupt company. Polymath His stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his health and know-all in real life, in his ink drawings job had little value. He made a bargain with God; if he can show the complexity of someone like Doresurvived, while using his draughtsmanship to pen macabre whimsy, like an old-fashioned lovehe would make some changes. He did survive and came through stronger -child of Mervyn Peake and Edward Learricher.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0764948040</amazonuk> There is, you see, a different way: ''great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1523092734
|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
|author=Eliza Van Cort
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)
{{newreview|author=Barbara Warmsley|title=Make, Mend, Bake, Save ''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and Shine!bravely. It is to live the life you've always wanted.''|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=A slimSometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, slither of a book with a big title. ''GreenA Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is the mantra on most pages, as well as tips on not a 'how to waste less - whether disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's foodsomething far more effective, clothes or water from but discussion at the tap. This book has a universal message. How moment seems to waste less. There is a nice introduction by seventysomething Barbara Walmsley, aka the charity [http://www.oxfam.org.uk/ Oxfambe about how women can be ''s] protected''Green Granny.'' Certainly catchy but will it catch on? When I was delving inside the first couple of pages looking for the writer's name (itve always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don's t need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not on the front cover) I discovered the phrase ''Printed And Bound In Chinajust an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.'' Defeating the message?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846013674</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Dawson1529109116|title=The Self-Sufficiency BibleCall Me Red: Window Boxes to Smallholdings - Hundreds of Ways to Become Self-SufficientA Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The recent financial crises have taken people by surprise and instead ''I want the image of trying a British farmer to ride the problem out and then get back to our old, profligate ways we've looked at how we can live more sustainably and less expensively. Thrift simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the new black and many people are taking pride in not spending moneynation. I might take issue with whether or not Simon Dawsondon's book should be called a ''bible'' which suggests a completeness which t think that is doesntoo much to ask.'t seem to exhibit, but it's an excellent starting point for those wanting to become more self-sufficient. It also has the recipe for a chocolate sponge which takes just five minutes to make – and that takes a lot of beating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787689</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Evany Thomas|title=The Secret Language of Sleepstereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: A Couplehe knows that he'll be a farmer. It's Guide to not always the Thirty-nine Positions|rating=3|genre=Home case though. Hannah Jackson was born and Family|summary=This volume takes brought up on the premise that the positions in which couples sleep together are an insight into their private mindWirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. ThereforeHer original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, with the help of whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the line drawings of 39 (apparently all of THE 39) positions, one might see where one is going wrongLake District. It’s She saw a chicken lamb being born and egg situation where you might learn you’re with , although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the wrong bed partnerkudos of her original intention, and change either them or your nocturnal habits, or in order she knew that she wanted to change yourself alter things having reflected on be a shepherd. With the contents here – with the help as they suggest determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of a ceiling-mounted camcorderher, she set about achieving her ambition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1932416471</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Norah Vincent1786495902|title=Voluntary MadnessThe Natural Health Service: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony BinHow Nature Can Mend Your Mind|author=Isabel Hardman|rating=3.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''Voluntary Madness'' is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits Isabel Hardman suffered a trauma which she chooses not to three mental health facilities in Americashare. The first is an urban, public hospital She says that houses mainly homelessa friend who does know, psychotic patients, many of whom are addicted to drugsburst into tears and health-care professionals' jaws have sagged in disbelief. In Hardman dealt with this hospital, at the time by 'keeping going': the doctors are overworked and jaded and medication is always next day she went to work to cover the answer. Soonbudget, next there was the author finds that her latent depression (which led her to do EU referendum, the book in the first place) is returningpolitical party leadership contests and then it was party conference season. The process of being institutionalised breaks her sense of selfOne night she had to be sedated and returned home to begin long-worth down astonishingly fastterm sick leave. Indeed, she suggests that it is That was what brought me to this book: 2020 was the lack of autonomy in institutional life, even for those patients who voluntarily commit themselves, that makes it so hard for them to rebuild independent lives year when they finally leave the institutionbins went out more often than I did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean Hannah Edelstein Lauren Martin|title=Himglish and Femalese: Why Women Don't Get Why Men Don't Get ThemThe Book of Moods|rating=45
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Men arenI was in a great mood when I first learnt of this book, and because sarcasm doesn't Martian always translate well into writing, imagine the word ''great'' being delivered with an eye roll and women don't hail from Venusa sigh, through clenched teeth. We're all Earthlings apparently; which seems like progress I had spent the best part of a sortrainy, windy weekend afternoon out on the water at our local sailing club in the rescue rib, on standby in case anyone who was racing needed support. Even so It's a volunteer duty we still have trouble understanding each other because we speak different languages – Himglish all do during the year, and normally I'm happy to, but that day the weather was miserable and Femalese. Luckily Jean Hannah Edelstein is fluent in both I was miserable, and has written this light hearted volume it all came to define a head that evening when I noticed on the problem website that we had been thanked for our time as "Dave and translatewife". Wow. I had never needed this book more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848091729</amazonuk>1538733625
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaki Scarcello0008420386|title=Fifty and FabulousFailosophy: The Best Years of a Woman's LifeA handbook for when things go wrong|author=Elizabeth Day|rating=3.54
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=When you open a package What do Malcolm Gladwell, Alain de Botton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lemn Sissay, Nigel Slater, Emeli Sandé, Meera Syal, Dame Kelly Holmes and find a bright pink book which proudly proclaims Andrew Scott have in common? They'Fifty ve all failed and Fabulous: the best years of a woman- more importantly - they've been willing to appear on Elizabeth Day's podcast to discuss their failures and how life' you can be forgiven worked out for wondering if this is going to be another of those books which recommends strenuous exercise regimes, strict diets and just a little nip and tuck under the chinthem afterwards. Personally, my heart sank because, er, well, IYou'll find the results of these discussions in ''Failosophy''m no longer fifty. Were my fabulous years behind me?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787603</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Hern1504321383|title=Bangers Single, Again, and Again, and MashAgain|author=Louisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and FamilyAutobiography|summary=Keith Hern found a small lump in his neck ''You can't be happy and when the results of the tests came through he tried to put the appointment off as he had something more pressing to do, but the doctor was insistent. He knew then that he had cancerfulfilled on your own. The lump in his neck was, in fact, You are not complete until you find a secondary tumour with the primary being in the back of his tongue. But for the secondary tumour the discovery of the primary might have been too late for successful treatment. Keith takes us through the discovery of his cancer, his reactions to the diagnosis, his treatment and the titular meal of bangers and mash – the first solid food which he had attempted for some timeman''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312772</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Susan Ostler|title=Flirt Diva - For Women Who Want This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to be Bold and Sassy and have a Fabulous Life!|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=There are lots of timetabled books on believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the market, that promise to transform everything from your employability adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the size of your thighs in a certain number of weeks, if you commit to their programme, and this book girl (she's usually fairly young) is really just another one to add to rescued by the 'scheduled self-improvement' pile. Except we're not talking here about dropping a dress size in time for Christmas, or sailing through handsome prince who then marries her so that oh-so-important interview to land the job of your dreamsthey can live happily ever after...for this book is a 6 week guide Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''Getting Loved Upwithout'' the expectation that promises to put its participants (they will marry and have children. It was a belief and as youit would be many years before Louisa would conclude that 'll learn, you're more than a mere reader with this title) on the fast track to romance. Goshbelief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312799</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1538731738|title=It's A Don's Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life|author= Sarah Ban Breathnach
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Professor Mary BeardSomeone once said: it's not self-indulgence, feisty Cambridge classics donit's therapy! I think they were talking about shopping, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goesbut it probably can be applied to most things. Even on holiday In my case, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blog. She is engaged in it applies to writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realises, whilst perambulating the backstreets of the Mexican city of Oaxacan, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been like. She observes the low rise shops, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts her into imaginative reconstruction. In her blog, from which this intriguing book is culled, she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her things because I want to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeii. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicerorather than because I can sell it or because I's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old ageve got something to sell.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanSharon Blackie|title=Don't Swallow Your GumIf Women Rose Rooted
|rating=5
|genre= Biography
|summary= I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one I've borrowed. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a reason and I'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.
|isbn=1912836017
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1543987877
|title=Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life
|author=Dr Thomas Jordan
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary='''BANG'Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life''is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. That's The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the sound opposite of copious urban myths being shot down. grief: ''if you love'BANG', Dr Thomas Jordan tells us, ''you will inevitably grieve''. ThatYour love relationships begin the moment you's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baselessre born and end only when you die. '''CLICK'''Whilst we all come into the world hoping to give and receive love there are many people for whom love is not quite so simple. That's Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the noise lots of illsame mistakes -informed websites make as they get closed downand this eventually becomes resignation. All noises come due to this brilliant bookFor people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, self-preservation, in the form of resignation is a necessity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez Michael Harris|title=PerfumesSolitude: The A - Z GuideIn Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Wonderful, wonderful, wonderfulThis is not the book I was expecting it to be. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading ''Perfumes'' would For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to read it while sampling step outside the scents mainstream, but it reviewsis not that at all. Instead of telling us how, but even without it is more about the olfactory component, ''Perfumeswhy''. Harries examines how we' is re eroding solitude, which used to be a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) natural part of our human life, and why that matters. Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high arteventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but turn perfume criticism into an mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) tooled him. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>1847947662
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Clarkson0753553236|title=Driven to Distraction|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Jeremy Clarkson's middle name ought to be ''Marmite''. You really do either love him or hate him. I am in the first camp. I think he is brilliantly funny. He is. He makes me laugh. Out loud. And like many women who watch Top Gear, (well, those that don't watch it because they are strangely – ''bizarrely'' - attracted to James May – I am '''not''' - or because they want to mother Tiny Habits: The Hamster – I do '''not''') I find Jeremy Clarkson hilarious. And I don't think you have to like cars to see the appeal either! I mean, the columns within ''Driven To Distraction'' occasionally start ''off'' talking about cars, but not always and they quickly move on to the things that get his dander up before tailing neatly back to the cars again. Or not. And what is in between is pure gold dust.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155548</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSmall Changes That Change Everything|author=Brian Johnson |title=Rockers and Rollers: An Automotive Autobiography B J Fogg|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Brian Johnson will probably go down as one of the luckiest men in showbiz. He had a brief moment of glory in the early 70s as vocalist with Geordie, a Tyneside version of Slade, who had three Top 40 hits and then fell on hard times. After going back to the day job, a chance call invited him to go and audition for AC/DC, whose vocalist Bon Scott had suddenly died. Three decades later, not only have the group held on to their loyal fanbase, but one of their albums, according to an online source, is second only to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' in terms of global sales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=James May|title=Car Fever: Dispatches From Behind The Wheel|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=NowGo on, way back when I was younger, and watched TV a lot, I am sure I remember Top Gear as being a consumer programmeadmit it - you're not quite perfect. How times changeYou still have those odd, quirky even loveable (to you) habits which seem to annoy other people. These days I am sure they destroy more cars than they reviewOther people, of course, and the three main people from the show are approaching superstar status, sorely afflicted with their amenable personalitiessome dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, awkward wardrobe choices and trenchant laddish charmsif only they would make just a little bit of effort. They've sprung their media entities from out of the studio, into other TV programmes, and the world of journalismOr put another way, I get cross with chatty columns in the broadsheets allowing them free rein myself because I forget to witter to their heart's desire. And here, in one grandiloquent volume, do things or do some actions more than I should and in time for Christmas, are many of James May's desires.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994533</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Mabey |title=Wild Cooking|rating=4|genre=Cookery|summary=It's become fashionable now no matter how I try to make do, what seem to cut back - even for those who have no need to do so. Conspicuous consumption is frowned upon and thriftiness is the new black, so ''Wild Cooking'', previously published in hardback as ''The New English Cassoulet'' is going be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to appeal get to the mood of the moment grips with its approach of 'busking in the kitchen' and making doconcepts. Some of it might seem a little extreme – I really can't imagine that constantly fail and then I will ever slow cook a Peking Duck in front get cross with myself for failing. Lack of a fan heater simply because it might as well cook the food whilst it's heating the room – but I love the idea of using a glut willpower is another burden to add to make broad bean hummus, or even of gathering up vegetables which have been left when the field has been harvestedlist.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522969</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deirdre Bounds1785785516|title=Fulfilled: A Personal Revolution in Seven Steps Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin
|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Dierdre Bounds' Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life was at rock bottom when she was introduced to the Twelve Step Plan used easier if everybody abides by Alcoholics Anonymous and within a matter set of conventions, some of years she had built an internet business into an award-winning organisation which are ages old and sold it to a FTSE 100 companyother which have evolved over time. She's adapted the twelve steps Manners are not about how much to produce her personal revolution in seven steps.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273725521</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake|title=Smart Girls Marry Money|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=If your friend told tip or how you should behave if you that sheget an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they'd fallen for a gorgeous man – they were deeply in love and re about getting married as soon as possible – the probability is that you'd be delighted for herbasics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. On the other hand if she said that sheOf course we all have more relaxed manners when we'd met a man whom she thought was the best she was likely to meet re with family and on the basis that he was wealthy she was planning to marry himfriends, what would you think? Does the word but it''gold-digger'' spring to mind? Are you horrified? Well, think again as it just might be that the second solution could be the one that leaves your friend in the s best position.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762435178</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tracey Whitmore |title=How if we learn to Write an Impressive CV and Cover Letter: A Comprehensive Guide for the UK Job Seeker|rating=1.5|genre=Business distinguish between our public and Finance |summary=Back home in the UK after a stint abroad, private lives and job hunting for the first time in years, this book is a rather timely addition to my shelvesact appropriately. Having spent the last year and a bit teaching English, I also like to think I know a little about grammar and general language use. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the author of this book, and while it 's all very well advising readers that 'Fucking Good Manners'first impressions really do count'', this carries less weight than it should when you notice the dubious grammar in the first line of aims to help us on the introduction, and in virtually every chapter which followsway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845283651</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Haynes1999811402|title=Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am?Painting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleAutobiography|summary=This is It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a remarkable lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. It gives an insight into The answer would be something along the process lines of psychotherapy'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, both from the theoretical point of view anddid an engineering apprenticeship, more significantlybecame a busker, from actual conversations finally got into medical school and sessions is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the consulting roombook's about. Jane Haynes takes us through her own development as There's a client (although she doesnlot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't like that word) in her own self-discovery and therapy sessions, and then actually fit into some of her consulting sessions after she qualifies as the entertainment genre either. Did we have a therapistcategory for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. IIt've always thought of this kind of thing as very American, but this book is entirely Britishs an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845299728</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Denise Cullington |title=Breaking Up Blues|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Whether you're married or single, the dumpeé or the dumper, at one time or another, we've all had Move on to deal with the trials and tribulations of the dreaded break up. Whether you're thinking of leaving, have just ended a relationship, or are still trying to recover from the one that got away, Denise Cullington's ''Breaking Up Blues'' is a self-help guide to coping with the bitterness and rage, emotional emptiness and endless depression that can come along with it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0415455472</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Literary Fiction Reviews]]